weight loss news
Walking Helps Obese People Prevent Blood Clots
Mpls. MN., May 14, 2003: Investigators recently discovered inactive obese people are less able than healthy weight individuals to produce and release a clot-busting substance known as tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA), the body's primary defense against the formation of blood clots.
Obesity is associated with an array of medical conditions, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol that increase the risk for stroke and heart attack. Now it seems like lack of ability to produce a natural clot busting substance can be added to the list.
According to Dr. Christopher A. DeSouza, the lead researcher on the study, obese people are not doomed to develop blood clots. Moderate exercise, even without weight loss, stimulates t-PA production. After just 3 months of walking at a moderate pace for 45 minutes 5 times a week, and despite the fact that they did not lose any weight, obese men experienced a significant improvement in their ability to release t-PA.
These findings suggest that exercise improves the general health of arteries, DeSouza said, enabling them to release t-PA when needed. Why that is remains unclear, he said. DeSouza and his colleagues reported their findings during the May 2003 American Heart Association's fourth annual conference on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology in Washington, D.C.
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